Western Cape African National Congress (ANC) provincial secretary Mcebisi Skwatsha on Tuesday accused the Paarl town council, led by the Democratic Alliance and Independent Democrats (ID), of organising a witch-hunt against duly appointed council officials.
He was responding to reports that the council had suspended municipal manager Sidima Kabanyane.
The allegations, contained in the letter of suspension sent to Kabanyane, were ”spurious and flimsy” and in some instances ”downright dishonest”, he said in a statement.
One example was Kabanyane’s alleged failure to finalise the organisational structure.
It was caused directly by the mayoral committee’s inability to agree on a management top structure, because of the ID’s insistence on a so-called ”50/50” representation for ID-supported candidates for senior positions, he said.
It was a matter of public record that the council appointed a multiparty committee to break the impasse, which had secured the services of the University of Stellenbosch to assist in finalising the top structure.
This process had not been finalised, because that institution had not yet completed its recommendations.
”It is shocking fabrication for Mr Kabanyane to be blamed,” Skwatsha said.
Another blatantly erroneous allegation was that the manager had failed to implement a statutory complaints performance-management system.
Again, it was a matter of public record that a council decision put the submission date for this process as the end of July.
”The suspension and retrenchment, which will inevitably follow, fits the same pattern pursued in other municipalities, Stellenbosch and Cape Town included.
”It amounts to an organised witch-hunt against duly appointed officials. It is a thinly veiled attack on transformation and the equity provisions of the law,” he said. — Sapa